


The Tenacity of the Beast

by GhostyGooGirl, rickandmortygetschwifty



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Alien Viruses, Collab, Fanart, Feral Behavior, Feral Rick, Infected Characters, Just don't look too closely lmao, M/M, Plague scenario, some reeeeeeally Questionable Science™, that boy will be beyond traumatized lmao, think of a catastrophe reminiscent of a zombie apocalypse, you're really going to feel for Morty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-05
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2019-01-07 11:09:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12231615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostyGooGirl/pseuds/GhostyGooGirl, https://archiveofourown.org/users/rickandmortygetschwifty/pseuds/rickandmortygetschwifty
Summary: When a mysterious virus infects Rick and makes him go wild, no one can stop the vicious and cunning monster that he becomes. Except maybe for Morty, the one person that this feral beast wants as a mate.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a collaboration done for a follower milestone on Tumblr! We would like to thank all of our followers for making this possible and also for brightening our days. We wanted to do something nice for you guys to celebrate! And we thought this yummy scenario of a feral, horny Rick coming onto an oblivious Morty would be a nice surprise~ Enjoy!
> 
> If anyone wants to drop by and have a chat with us, our tumblr usernames are [rickandmortygetschwifty](https://rickandmortygetschwifty.tumblr.com/) and [the-dimension-where-rickmorty](https://the-dimension-where-rickmorty.tumblr.com/). Don't be afraid to talk to us about all things Rick and Morty! We love talking to people!

It was a day that started off normally for Rick and Morty.

Morty was unceremoniously dragged out of bed at an ungodly hour by a way-too-energetic Rick, who was screaming about how they needed to leave for a trip to the Bloflenian star system. There was a famous alien passenger ship bound for the star system and it was the last one for the next three months. They had to leave, Rick said, like  _right this fucking instant_ , if they wanted to catch the ship before it left the spaceport station nearest to Earth. It was then promptly followed by a ramble about how great the spaceship cruise would be, and a rant about how it was better than using the portal gun or even their own ship to get to their damn destination.

It was absolutely not because Rick was lured in by the promise of wild raves that the ship was known for.

Jesus Christ, who was Morty kidding? It was  _exactly_  because of that. Morty had to face the facts: his grandfather just wanted to go on this trip to get shitfaced at the space equivalent of a useless holiday cruise. Did Rick even know what he was going to do when they get to the planet?

Rick shook his head as Morty continued to yell at him, insisting that it was indeed a trip worth dragging out his grandson at ass o’clock in the morning for. He then threatened to make Morty do all sorts of useless errands if they missed the ship’s departure.

Moments like these are when Morty gets attacked by the sudden urge to throttle Rick. He would have told his grandfather to please kindly fuck off, had Rick not promised to leave him alone for three whole days. The temptation of having a few nights’ worth of alone time was too much for the sleep-deprived boy, so he reluctantly agreed.

That was Morty’s biggest mistake.

* * *

 

The ship’s shadow dwarfed the tiny spaceport, looming with all its grandiosity over the excited tourists waiting to board it for the first time. The ship, aptly named the Titan Triumph, was about half the size of Pluto and had a gleaming metal hull and powerful antimatter engines capable of jetting the ship across galaxies in the span of mere weeks.

Morty was struck speechless as the  _Titan Triumph_  approached, yanking Rick’s sleeve as the ship approached the spaceport. The ship was so much bigger than he had expected. Morty had thought he would be spending days in a smelly, cramped cabin as he waited for Rick to finish up his customary session of drinking and gambling. And instead, Morty was going to spend a whole seven days enjoying himself in one of the biggest and most luxurious spaceship cruises in the universe.  _It was almost too good to be true_ , he thought uneasily, so he asked his grandfather if there was anything off he felt about it.

Rick simply rolled his eyes and told his idiot grandson to have more faith in him.

The  _Titan Triumph_  was even more extravagant from the inside. It was a self-contained world; with its huge indoor pools, malls boasting of shops with products from all over the universe, and several apartments housing both extrastellar tourists and Bloflenians alike. It had its own parks, its own buildings, and even a lake with crystal-clear waters situated in the middle of a miniature city populated exclusively by first-class passengers. An honest-to-god tram system, complete with bridges and underwater tunnels, connected all the sections of the ship to each other. A glass ceiling showed the black void of space, looming thousands of feet above the highest buildings in the ship and treating the passengers to a beautiful view of the sky.

Morty didn’t know how Rick had managed it, but his grandfather had managed to book a room with a gorgeous view of a pool with an artificial waterfall. Several children played and splashed in the waves, having the time of their lives.

Rick wasted no time ditching his grandson in the room before he went to one of the countless bars in the ship. He promised Morty he’d be back in time to visit the indoor beach with him.

Morty waited a full five hours to pass with no sign of his grandfather’s return.

Ugh, typical Rick, forgetting about his promises. But at least he left Morty with a handful of cash, so maybe he’ll enjoy a tour of the place?

* * *

 

God, this place was huge. Morty almost collapsed after the twenty-eighth stop, so he let the gaggle of tourists and the guide move on without him. Spotting a Blips and Chitz arcade, Morty grinned and took out the wad of money he had with him. If Rick forgot about him, maybe he’ll have some fun on his own.

* * *

 

Rick laughed as he took another swig of cheap beer. The bar’s patrons were cheering him on, fueling his drive to win the pointless chugging game he started.

Rick emptied the mug in less than a minute. He thumped the mug on the table with a satisfied flourish, raising an amused eyebrow at his alien companion who hadn’t even gotten halfway through the noxious liquid before conceding defeat. The alien smiled, patting Rick on the back as he congratulated him.

“Y-y-you put up a good fight too,” Rick told him, “for an—UUURP—complete lightweight that is.”

“Careful,” the alien jokingly replied, “I’m still the captain of the ship. I can throw you out whenever you want.”

“You wouldn’t dare. W-w-why the fuck would you have given me free tickets for this cruise? I-i-it’s definitely not out of the goodness of your heart. These things don’t come cheap.”

The captain of the ship shook his head. Just a tiny favor, he said. He’s heard news about some passengers managing to smuggle some exotic animals onto the ship. He wanted Rick to apprehend the poachers for him, and trap the animals they’ve smuggled. Who knows what kind of dangerous animals these were? There haven’t been any reports in what quadrant of the galaxy these animals were from. They needed Rick’s help, the captain continued, because the ship has never dealt with poachers before.

Rick scoffed, saying that the job would be a piece of cake. The captain basically hired as an overpaid animal wrangler and the whole thing could be resolved in a matter of minutes. So Rick raised his glass, shouting for a refill as another alien came forward to challenge him. The work could wait. Rick had a full week to do it. Rick’s vision blurred as he downed glass after glass of alcohol.

Hmm… was Rick forgetting something? Oh well.

* * *

 

Morty Smith awoke from his sixth play of the  _Roy 2_ simulator to complete pandemonium. Tourists were screaming and jostling each other as they made their way to the entrances of the arcade. Even the arcade employees have deserted their posts, running straight for the fire exits without looking back.

Morty cringed as a particularly wet and slimy alien brushed past him. Soon, the arcade was empty and silent, the only sign of life being Morty himself and a battered TV set tuned to the ship’s only news channel.

_“We bring you the latest developments in the Titan Triumph! It looks like the ship has been quarantined in response to the shocking death toll that has now taken dozens of lives! Meanwhile, ship security has been left aghast at the scene that has taken place in the west sector…”_

* * *

 Something had gone wrong during the trip, as it always inevitably does whenever Rick and Morty are involved.

Passengers are found dead, their corpses decaying and rotten even when further tests revealed they had died only hours ago. Many are found injured and shell-shocked, unable to communicate with paramedics as they were wheeled off to the ship’s clinic. Some are found delirious and in the throes of madness, their entire bodies twitching with manic energy as they struggled against the restraints that the ship security had placed them in.

The whole ship was thrown in a frenzy. Every passenger scrambled to cancel and get their tickets refunded, trying to disembark at the next spaceport before whatever had got to the unfortunate souls reached them. The ticket office was a mess, and office workers were presented with mountains of complaints from aliens who had lined up for hours just to leave.

But it was too late. By the time the  _Titan Triumph_ arrived at the next stop, so many passengers have been affected that the ship had to be quarantined. No one was to be allowed to board the ship, and no one was allowed out, effectively placing the entire population of the ship at the mercy of the mysterious catastrophe that had befallen them. The crew at the spaceport refused to let the ship dock, forcing it to float in the bleak darkness of space.

Morty ran to find Rick as soon as he heard the news.

* * *

Rick awoke with a splitting headache and a sour taste in his mouth. As he came to, wiping the sticky drool that had smeared onto his face, he tried to remember what happened.

Okay, so he was at a bar. He was knocking back a few drinks with the Titan Triumph’s captain. And then he had a few more drinks, and…

Nothing. Rick’s memory was blank after that. No wonder he felt like someone was taking a jackhammer to his skull. How much did he drink?

Rick’s eyes adjusted to the dim light in the bar. It was curiously empty, and the whole scene looked as if it had been deserted in a hurry. Chairs and tables were overturned, the lights were left on, and broken glasses and mugs littered the floor. Rick got up to stretch, surveying his surroundings in confusion.

The back door opens, and an alien with a sickly pale complexion tumbled face-first onto the floor. Rick rushed over to examine the alien, asking if he was okay. The alien didn’t respond at first. After several long minutes, Rick prodded the alien’s side.

The reaction was instantaneous. The alien wrapped its feeble forelegs around Rick’s neck and proceeded to shake him, its entire body convulsing like a ragdoll. Foam dribbled from its mandibles as it snapped them at him. Rick jerked back in disgust as a glob of the alien’s spit landed in his eyes. Is this what he got as a reward for being helpful? He punched the alien in the thorax, making it double over from the pain.

Rick wasted no time ensnaring the alien in a headlock, shooting it in the forehead with a blast from its laser gun. It fell to the floor ungracefully, steam coming off from the hole in its head.

_What the hell is going on?_

* * *

The street outside the arcade was eerily silent. Morty couldn’t shake off the feeling of unease as he walked past the deserted stores and buildings that used to be teeming with life just hours ago. Or it seemed like just hours? How long was Morty in the game? He had lost track of the time while he was playing Roy 2. Curse you, you lifelike simulator.

He rounded the corner and immediately spots the body of an alien tourist lying facedown in a puddle of water, their spindly limbs splayed out on the street. Before Morty could investigate, the alien’s limbs twitched, and it slowly got to its feet, looking around first before zeroing in on Morty. It shuffles toward him slowly, its arms raised up in a stance reminiscent of a zombie ripped straight from George Romero’s  _Dawn of the Dead._

Morty called out to the alien nervously, trembling in fear as it approached him without saying a word. Twenty feet away. Fifteen. Ten. Nine. Eight.

He took a step back, tripping over his feet clumsily when the alien knelt down and got close enough to almost touch him. The alien’s clawed fingers reached towards Morty’s face…

Morty blinked in surprise when the alien was yanked off him hard. Morty averted his eyes when its head was jerked painfully to the side, snapping its neck and instantly killing it. The killer dumped the alien’s body and wiped her hands on her shirt. 

“You okay?” she asked.

Morty’s savior looked beat up and tired, but the way she clenched her weapon, a baseball bat covered in rainbow stains of alien blood, clued Morty in to how formidable she truly was.  Her companions all wore white surgical masks over their faces and held different weapons in their hands/claws/tentacles/hooves/whatever that last alien at the back had attached to his arms. The whole group eyed Morty warily, as if they thought that he was still a risk that needed to be dealt with.

“You’re the first survivor we’ve seen in ages!” she said, giving a mask to Morty. “We’re trying to find the other uninfected. Want to join us?”

* * *

Rick slapped his forehead as he tried to chase away the killer headache still pounding away in his skull. God, what did he drink? It’s been hours since he’d woken up and he’d already taken aspirin.

Rick stopped for a moment to think. Okay, so the place he woke up in was deserted. The whole place looked like a war zone. He met a stranger that tripped, tried to freaking kill him, and only stopped when it got shot. The most logical assumption would be that there was an ongoing crisis that panicked most of the passengers of the ship so– Rick clutched his head when another wave of pain washed over him.

He had to hurry up and find Morty before he passed out from this fucking headache!

Where did he leave Morty? Rick was struggling to remember. Did he even bring his portal gun on this trip? Was there a hotel? And a pool? Shit, did he really leave Morty alone in the room by himself for almost a day? He really was an ass. And he forgot his promise too…

Wait, what promise was that again? Fuck, even his vision was starting to blur…

Rick stumbled towards his hotel, clutching his head and hoping Morty was okay.

* * *

Morty’s survivors turned out to be an elite team of rescuers formed by the captain of the ship  to help herd in the remaining survivors.

Morty’s seen brutal things. A lot of the bodies they found belonged to the dead passengers too unlucky or slow to escape a plague that ravaged much of the ship. He had to watch as the group put the infected out of their agony by killing them brutally and messily.

He stared off into the distance, hoping that Rick was somewhere safe.

* * *

 

 Rick felt a bit… queasy. Like something had wormed his way into his gut and never quite left.

Rick wonders if he’d eaten something off in the bar.

He’d have to go to the ship clinic once he’s found Morty. If there were any doctors in this shitty ship, that is. Who knows how widespread the pandemonium is by now. Maybe the crisis plunged this whole ship into something reminiscent of an apocalyptic society. Like  _Mad Max._

What kind of catastrophe would’ve made everyone leave so fast, though? A  terrorist? A malfunction in the ship’s engine? A plague? A loose animal, maybe? Whatever it is, Rick isn’t sticking around to find out. He needed to find his grandson.

* * *

 

 Morty cringed as one of the rescue team severed the head of a dying man who lay in a puddle of his own vomit.

The rescue team member wiped his brow. “He had to be killed,” he explained. “Some species can’t be cured of the disease. It affects species in different ways. Some go mad. Some instantly die. Some turned catatonic. This species becomes particularly dangerous when infected. They become bloated and develop highly infectious boils that burst at the slightest touch. Very gruesome.”

He narrowed his eyes at Morty. “I’ve never seen what this infection can do to your species. You’re a wild card.”

Morty gulped.

The leader of the group laughed. “Don’t worry about that, Don. I think he’s in safe hands if he’s with us. Besides, you’re alone, right, Morty?”

* * *

 

 Rick arrived at the hotel lobby, looking worse for wear as he climbed his slow way up to the room.

 _Where’s Morty?_ Rick thought after he opened the door to an empty and dark room.

Hol fuck, Morty was gone. And the little shit took all his money without asking him. Wait– didn’t he give it to Morty? Or did he just leave it on the table? Ugh, why so hard think?

 _Why so hard me think,_ Rick corrected himself, rubbing the sides of his face. What’s wrong with him? Why can’t he think straight? The man looked around the room again in confusion.

_Wait, why I here again?_

_What I doing?_ Rick thought absentmindedly.  _Was I here for something?_

He scratched his head, freezing as his stomach rumbled. He can try to remember what he’s looking for later. For now, he needed to focus on an urgent matter. Which is–

Rick heard the sound of footsteps echo one floor down. The man licked his lips as the worries of what he needed to remember was banished from his mind.

_Hungry._

* * *

 

 Morty saw neither hair nor hide of his missing grandfather.

* * *

 

 Rick crept down the stairs softly, watching the lone tourist wander around the dimly lit hallways. The tourist was crowing nervously to no one in particular, checking each door along his path. Maybe he was checking for other survivors. Maybe he was looking for his missing family. It didn’t matter to Rick. All he needed was food.

Food and.. something.

Rick tiptoed stealthily toward the other man, waiting for him to pause at one of the doorways before grunting loudly to catch the other’s attention.

“Food?” Rick asked the tourist. The other man’s eyes widened, backing away from Rick with fear in his eyes.

Rick didn’t understand. Wasn’t he being clear enough? Why did the tourist look so scared? All he needed was food! Rick growled, stalking over to the frightened tourist and sticking both hands into his pockets. The tourist froze in fear as Rick sniffed him for any sign of food.

Nothing. The man had nothing. No morsels of food that Rick could eat. When Rick took a step back, whimpering from his hunger, the tourist screamed and ran off in the other direction.

Rick snarled, his prey drive kicking into high gear. How dare this stranger leave so rudely!? Rick chased the man, his long strides matching three of the man’s paces. Rick followed him all the way down to the first floor of the hotel, never relenting as the man attempted to shake him off.

It was all over in minutes. Rick pinned his prey down, baring his teeth at the other’s face. Rick was hungry, he was tired, he was annoyed by this rude man and his mind was  _gone, gone, gone_  as he bent down to get a first bite of his impromptu lunch.  

* * *

 

 Morty’s tiny group of explorers swelled as they found more survivors cowering in the abandoned areas of the ship. Only a tiny portion of the people they found were allowed to come with them. Some were too sick and weak, some were dying, some were delirious  and insane, some refused, and others were already infected. Most of them had to be culled, or else they risked infecting the remaining survivors.

Morty’s learned not to look away as these poor souls died.

Although, they’ve been finding less and less people lately. The rescue team has been finding a lot of bodies instead, and the way those people died were utterly gruesome– limbs and heads torn off, organs ripped straight from their bodies, bite marks all over their skin– like they haven’t died from a plague at all. It was as if they’ve been murdered by some rabid creature.

“The captain mentioned that some passengers smuggled animals aboard this ship,” Don mentioned. “Better watch out, this looks like the work of some animal. One of them could have gotten loose.”

A plague, and now a wild animal? Could this day get any worse?

* * *

 

 Rick stalked his prey, hiding in the dense leaves of a potted plant. He was still full from his last few meals, but he couldn’t resist taking this chance to observe the slow-moving, unaware creature that wandered too close to the area he marked as his territory. Just like all the others he came across, it was entirely oblivious to his presence.

This place was his. He had marked everything in his path with the blood of his prey, and he would not let any contender challenge his right to prowl these halls. He had claimed this entire ship as his space, and no one should enter it without his permission.

The intruder walked over to a counter, checking for any signs of life and breathing a sigh of relief when it thought it was alone. Spotting a bowl of menthol candies resting on the surface, it took one of them and tore open the wrapper. The creature popped the candy in its mouth, discarding the wrapper on the floor and turning to leave.

Rick fumed. Not only did the idiot enter his territory, it had taken something of his and defiled the space with its carelessness.  Never mind that Rick was still full. Never mind that he had just ripped something apart no later than an hour ago. He had to assert his dominance and teach this stupid creature a lesson!

Rick lunged.

* * *

 

 More bodies turning up, more causes for concern.

Some of the survivors were getting itchy. They questioned how some simple minded animals could kill so ruthlessly and efficiently. They doubted that any animal could have eluded capture or death for so long.

They weren’t wrong to question and doubt.

They passed a scene of carnage with suppressed terror. The walls and windows of each building they passed were painted with blood, and piles and piles of bodies were dumped carelessly at the streets for anyone to see. The air stank of decay and rot.

The bodies were maimed as if they had been chewed on while they were still alive. Morty had to resist the urge to vomit as he looked at the faces of the half-eaten people. Whatever had done this to them was something Morty would  _never_ want to encounter in his life.

* * *

 

 Rick licked the red liquid off his hands, whining unhappily as he sat at the foot of his latest victim’s corpse. Killing was getting so boring. And he was running out of prey to eat. He needed to leave some of them alive if he wanted to survive in his newly claimed territory. Rick’s prey could only get so gullible until they got the hint and started hiding from him.

No, he needed a new objective. Like finding something. Yes… wasn’t he trying to find something before he got distracted by all the prey? Rick racked his brain for an answer.

Zip. Zero. Nada. There was nothing popping up in his head.

Rick perked up in interest as he heard faint noises from the east, quickly forgetting about his earlier thought. He grinned as voices floated toward his ears. Yes, more possible prey to check out. Hopefully they don’t piss him off or he’d have to kill them.

Rick ambled towards the sounds of the newcomers.

* * *

 

 The whole group stopped as they heard strange animal whimpers and squeals emanating from a dark alleyway. Morty huddled with the rest of the survivors, cowering in fear as one of the rescue squad members went ahead to investigate the source of the noise. If it was the

There was a dead silence for a few agonizing moments. Then a collective sigh of relief as the squad member emerged from the darkness in one piece, holding several cages of small furry animals in her talons. The animals seemed lethargic and half-dead, and some of them seemed to drool or twitch excessively. When it became apparent what happened to these animals, the squad member had to deposit the cages far away from the group and undergo an emergency decontamination sweep on herself. The rest of the squad scanned the animals, performing a quick check-up. The results were clear.

The animals were diseased.

The squad members looked nervously at each other and began to titter. Well, now they knew what caused the plague. These animals definitely harbored the same virus that infected so many passengers. But none of the cages were opened, and these animals looked harmless. So the animals couldn’t  have gotten out. So what was responsible for all of those bodies? What had maimed and killed all those poor people?

* * *

 

 Rick sniffed the air. The newcomers were near. He could feel his blood pumping as he got closer to the hapless creatures, his body tensing in anticipation.

He saw the first of the creatures walk through the streets that he had marked as his territory, their scents wafting toward Rick’s nose. A whole herd was headed toward the west, to somewhere Rick neither knew nor cared. None of them had spotted him yet. Rick darted through the narrow paths and climbed up the narrow ledges of the buildings with practiced ease, staying out of his the intruders’ line of sight.

Rick quickly formulated a plan of attack. Some of his targets carried weapons. Rick would have to go after the weakest first, then. He wasn’t too keen on getting hurt. He’ll have to disperse the herd if he wanted to take them down. Divide and conquer. He quickly selected the individual to take down first.

Yes, this will be all too easy.

* * *

 

 Morty shivered, stuffing his hands into a pocket and walking closer to the squad leader. His eyes flicked around nervously, but he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Why does he feel like he’s being watched?

Morty froze as his eyes landed on a pair of familiar but eerily glowing eyes staring straight out at him in the darkness.

* * *

 

 Rick smiled as the weakest of the herd stopped to stare at him, foolishly letting its companions to walk past and leave it defenseless. Its mouth was open in shock, and for one moment Rick wondered if it would alert the others to his presence. It would certainly complicate things, but Rick could handle it  The gullible, idiotic creature did not do that, however, and just stood there in dumbfoundedness as the rest of the group took a left turn down the street and disappeared.  With the coast clear, Rick stepped out of the shadows.  

* * *

 

  _Holy shit. Is that… Rick?_

Morty’s never seen Rick like this before. Animalistic. Beastly. Monstrous.

_Feral._

Rick looked like a mess. With his lab coat all torn up, his hands crusted with dried blood and gore; parts of his pale, milky skin covered in a thin layer of grime and not a speck of the cool intelligence always present beneath the surface. The unnatural glow of his irises was a barely visible ring around his dilated pupils. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair was a rat’s nest, and he was looking at Morty like he was a snack to be eaten.

“Rick?” Morty said to his grandfather. Rick gave no indication that he had heard him.

* * *

 

Rick pounced on his prey, pinning it down by the neck and snarling at him. The creature’s face filled with tears, and the delicious smell of terror permeated from it. It was weak and feeble, and it didn’t even try to struggle as Rick’s grip on its neck tightened. Pathetic. Rick would be doing its herd a favor by eliminating this creature from their gene pool.

But then a flip switched in Rick’s head.

The creature looked awfully familiar. And it stared back at him with recognition in its eyes. There was something in Rick that didn’t want to kill his prey, and he felt a sense of dread and panic at the thought of harming it. The creature stirred something in Rick’s mind, like a forgotten memory that was struggling to resurface.

_Morty._

Rick blinked, confused. What the hell was a Morty? Rick squinted down again at the creature, trying to remember. As Rick sat there in silence, ogling his prey, it seemed to transform before his very eyes.

It was pretty, in a way. Thick and luscious brown fur adorned its head. It had soft features that made it sort of endearing.  It had supple but pliant body that made it seem vulnerable and nonthreatening, but gave it an easy sort of grace in its appearance. Rick leaned down to bury his nose in the nape of the trembling creature, and inhaled deeply. Its scent made Rick’s mouth water. The smell wasn’t delicious to Rick, it was utterly sweet and tantalizing in a whole other way. And then he understood.

Morty? No.

_Mate._

* * *

Morty yelped as his grandfather scooped him up effortlessly, not even flinching when his grandson socked him hard in the chest. Holy shit, when had Rick become so strong? Morty was completely immobile in his grandfather’s arms, and he could feel bruises forming where Rick had his fingers wrapped around his body. He felt like a trapped bug in the unrelenting grip of a praying mantis.

Rick carried him bridal style, dashing off in the opposite direction from the rescue squad team and the survivors. He sprinted easily and expertly through the streets, alleyways, bridges and buildings, as if he knew where he wanted to take his grandson and was taking the quickest path to get there. Morty’s mouth dropped open as Rick scaled a brick wall like a spider monkey, jumped over a ditch more than ten feet wide, and broke down several wooden doors with only a bare fist, all while maintaining a firm grip on a struggling teenage boy. Rick was downright  _inhuman_ with the physical prowess he now possessed, and Morty was a hundred percent certain that the man who now held him in his arms was not his grandfather.

And Rick still stared back at him with those glowing eyes.

They arrive at a very familiar hotel, deserted but still recognizable even with its broken windows and several decaying corpses littering the street outside the entrance. Morty barely had time to joke about needing to check out the view of the pool waterfalls before Rick brought him inside, running up several flights of stairs without stopping to catch his breath.

Morty was promptly deposited in a tiny supply closet, the only source of light in the dark room a  tinted window that barely reflected the tiny pinpricks of light from the surrounding buildings. There wasn’t any means of escape save for the door behind Rick’s back, and Morty knew he was under Rick’s mercy. His grandfather dropped down to his knees, crawling into Morty’s personal space and acting exactly like an animal with a curious new toy to play with.

Rick’s eyes were so bright, so devoid of sentience, and so very, very hungry.

* * *

 

 Rick’s mate looked very afraid. He wanted to comfort his mate, provide for it, and tell it that no one was going to hurt him as long as Rick was alive. But he couldn’t do that, not yet– this person wasn’t his mate. Not yet. He still needed to claim it as a mate.

Rick nuzzled his would-be mate’s face, purring in contentment, before laying both hands on its body and tearing apart the yellow shirt that covered its skin. His mate squeaked in terror, squirming away as bits of cloth littered the floor. Rick pinned it down to prevent it from escaping, licking its bare skin to calm it down. It had probably been caught unprepared, and Rick was willing to soothe it before the mating begins. Rick knew how to be a good mate.

The tough blue fabric that covered its legs were next. Rick fumbled with the uncooperative second skin, his advances hindered by his struggling mate, but managed to work it off by snapping off the buttons with his teeth. With a couple of rough pulls, his mate’s was undressed and his naked body was finally revealed to Rick.

His mate was even more beautiful than Rick could ever imagine.

Rick’s own cock was straining against his pants. With significantly less trouble than he had with the other’s jeans, he freed himself with one  _pop_  of a button and dove straight down to finally claim his mate.

* * *

 

 Morty would be lying if he said he hadn’t had thoughts about seducing his grandfather. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t fantasized about being fucked by his grandfather’s thick cock. He’d  _really_ be lying if he said that he wasn’t even a little bit in love with Rick. But this wasn’t how he imagined getting pounded by Rick: his ass in the air, feeling a confusing mix of pain and pleasure as Rick thrusted into him dry without abandon, his clothes lying around in a shredded heap on the floor. The burn was intense and Morty was sure he’d barely be able to walk later, but the white-hot jolt of pleasure he got as Rick hit his prostate was enough to make up for it. There was no sounds in the room other than his grandfather’s grunts of pleasure and his own whimpers as they rapidly reached their own climaxes.

Rick emptied into Morty with a howl, and Morty came soon after. Rick slipped out of Morty, but not before giving a hard bite at the side of Morty’s neck, breaking the boy’s skin and lapping up the blood greedily. Morty’s feeling strangely disoriented after his orgasm to feel too much of the pain, and doesn’t react when Rick pulled him closer and settled their bodies on top of the mound of shredded clothes. He drifted off into a dreamless sleep…

* * *

 

 Rick awoke to a blinding light, staring up at a white ceiling and hearing the beeping sounds of a monitor echo back his heartbeat. He groggily sat up, stretching his muscles from the strain of sleeping on a stiff mattress.Beside him, his grandson was snoring away soundly in a separate bed. He groaned when he spotted a group of stony faces watching him from beyond the pink glow of a force field.

“What did I do this time?” Rick asked the crowd.

A surly voice answered him via intercom. “You’re fucking lucky you’re still breathing, Rick Sanchez. If it wasn’t for the captain telling us that you were one of the Class A VIPs we would’ve sent you out the airlock without a second thought. You’ve killed people, you bastard. Innocent people. This plague would have been a hundred times worse without you both.”

Rick pinched the bridge of his nose. “I got infected, didn’t I? By a fucking virus that–I presume– turned half of this ship into  _The Walking Dead_ extras.Tell me I–UUURP– didn’t start frothing at the mouth or anything? I didn’t recognize the virus, but I remember seeing someone with those symptoms.”

“It affects every species differently, moron. Take a hint. Some that get infected die instantly, some froth at the mouth, some fall into a coma and others turn into mindless beasts with enhanced strength and murderous animal instincts. Guess which one humans fall under.”

“So Morty and I were your biggest problems with the plague? I thought you said we were mindless beasts? You can’t even wrangle two fangless, clawless, unarmed humans? That-that’s your problem buddy, not mine.”

“You had fucking enhanced strength, asshole. And you two were sneaky as fuck. We couldn’t touch either of you. It was bad when it was just you we were dealing with. When you infected Morty with your semen, everything went to shit. There were two killers on the loose. And we had to–”

“ _What?”_

“I said, with you two on the loose we had to–”

“No, before that.”

A frustrated noise. “I was saying, you infected Morty with your semen. We had to–”

“HOW did that get there?”

“Are you an idiot? Copulation, sexual intercourse, doing the do! How else!? You fucked him, infected him with the virus, and now there were two of you prowling the ship. It was disturbing. You wandered around with unzipped pants and the other human was completely naked while he stalked people. You two fucked like bitches in heat, too. In full view of the security cameras.”

Rick slapped his forehead. Some vague memories were coming back to him now. Him killing and devouring people. Him marking his territory with fresh blood. Him pinning Morty down while he thrust into–

Oh shit.

The voice was still speaking. “– We managed to get a blood sample from Morty and eventually test our antidote on it. And when we sufficiently determined its efficiency, we loaded u a couple of darts and tranq’ed the hell out of you two. We lost a lot of good people taking you two down, you know. And oh, by the way, you’re banned from all  _Titan Triumph_ cruises. Forever. Fuck you both, and hope you have a safe trip to whatever miserable rock you evolved on.”

“Rick?” Morty mumbled, catching his grandfather’s attention. There was an awkward silence as the two gazed at each other without saying a word. Morty looked away guiltily after an agonizing silence, his eyes resting on an empty chair.

So Morty remembered, then. Fuck. What a shame. The only  _Titan Triumph_ cruise that Morty has ever been on (and will ever be on, now that they were banned from the ship forever) and everything was fucking ruined for him. All he’d have were these traumatizing memories that would scar him for life, and he’d probably hate Rick too on top of that. Rick was an idiot who made a mistake.

A mistake that could be fixed.

Rick reached inside his pocket for the memory gun.


	2. Artwork

The artwork to accompany this fic as part of the collaboration that I did with rickandmortygetschwifty. She's fantastic <3 

[Tumblr link to artwork](https://ghostygoo-girl-nsfw.tumblr.com/post/166083892054/so-this-is-my-part-of-a-wonderful-collab-with)

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry about the somewhat rushed pacing of this fic! It was originally supposed to be posted to tumblr as a fun headcanon, but then the rickmorty fandom was attacked by several deactivation sprees and several of our peers' blogs were terminated. It was too risky for us to post our nsfw collab in that unforgiving environment >_< -Es


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